Updated: Park ranger says kids can’t use basketball courts without a reservation

“Santa Ana has the second-highest child obesity rate in California among cities over 100,000.”  Does that sound familiar?  The bad news is that was reported way back in 2006, by Jennifer Delson when she was writing for the L.A. Times.

Has anything changed since 2006?  “The cities with the highest levels of overweight youth are Anaheim (43.5%), Santa Ana (46.5%) and Stanton (51.8%)—cities which also have the highest rates of poverty, according to publichealthadvocacy.org.” That is a new report, sad to say.

Yet when a mother of four tried to run a scrimmage for her NJB youth basketball team recently at John Adams park, in Santa Ana, a park ranger shut them down informed them that next time they needed to make a reservation.

This same youth basketball league has been overcharged by the SAUSD for the use of their facilities, as we previously reported.

I spoke to Gerardo Mouet, the Director of Santa Ana’s Parks and Recreation Agency today.  He explained that there are over sixty youth sports leagues in the city and 39 parks and a handful of community centers to solve them.  He said that folks have to reserve the courts and fields so that the leagues won’t dominate these resources and thereby prevent the local residents from using them.

I see his point.  But I still think that if a youth league shows up and a court is empty they ought to be able to use it without being hassled.  Mouet did say that he has co-sponsorships available so that local non-profits can use the facilities for free or at a discount.

How did we end up in this mess?  Will anything ever change in Santa Ana?  Will our city and school officials ever get their act together and stop nickel and diming the kids?

We are Orange County’s youngest city but the parks in many ways still cater to the old folks who are involved in the city’s neighborhood associations.  For example there is a dirt field at Santiago Park where you could easily build four full basketball courts. But the old fogies in the neighborhood will never allow that to happen.  It is a darn shame.  Instead they are going to landscape the field with boulders.  Good grief.

And of course we still have a lawn bowling center at Santiago Park that is used by folks who don’t live in our city at all.  How ridiculous is that?